Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mike Hansgen (K8RAT), who shares the following “Modern Marvels” documentary on the history of radio:
Video: History of radio documentary
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Category Archives: Videos
The Sony ICF-M780SL: Peter catches some serious MW DX on Gran Canaria
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Peter Wilson, for sharing the following guest post and DXpedition report:
Sony ICF-M780SL MWDX on Gran Canaria
by Peter Wilson
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain
I have spent the last two months in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean.
I travelled light and didn’t bring my radio/SDR collection with me.
A portable I saw in a local department store caught ny eye, and I ended up buying one from a local electronics retailer which had it on special at €55. It is a Sony ICF-M780SL which as turned out, is something rather special. It is a four band (LW, MW, SW,FM) DSP receiver, with an AM IF (LW, MW,SW) of 45 kHz and an FM IF of 128 kHz.
There’s too much hash in my apartment block to use it at home, but as I am a couple of streets away from the Ocean I intended to use it there.
Problem is there almost as much RF hash at the oceanside as at home. Also the Atlantic breakers crash loudly on the shore, and the wind can howl quite loudly. I did have some limited success and have included a couple of clips.
I discovered a better DX location at a small Plaza a short distance inland from the Ocean. There is an early morning peak for MW TA leading up to about 07:30 UTC (= local time)
The radio is used barefoot in each clip. There is some camera hash.
Here are the highlights:
USA Transatlantic
1500 WFED booming with ID 5736 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
790 WAXY with ESPN Radio ID 6369 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
1540 KXEL 6935 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
1530 WCKY 6373 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
770 WABC 5459 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
1520 WWKB
ESPN Radio with sports talk. 5841 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
Ocean front around dusk
1350 TWR Armenia 5377 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
1521 Duba Saudi Arabia 5004 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
1458 Lyca Radio, Brookmans Park UK 2914 km
Click here to view on YouTube.
The Sony ICF-M780SL is a great MW/LW/FM performer. SW propagation has been mediocre and suffers from the RF hash QRN, so difficult to test.
Amazing, Peter! It’s hard for me to believe the reception you had of WFED (Federal News Radio). I listen to that station every time I go through the DC/Baltimore area and I think your reception is just as good. A TA crossing of almost 5,000 km with armchair copy! Quite an accomplishment!
Thank you for sharing your Gran Canaria DX with us. I’m pretty impressed with the Sony ICF-M780SL as well.
Post Readers: make sure you check out Peter’s YouTube channel by clicking here.
Click here to search Amazon.co.uk and click here to search eBay for the Sony ICF-M780SL.
Video: CME’s and Solar Energetic Particles
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, TomL, who writes:
Regarding the last couple of posts recently about what affects Space Weather (and HF radio communications), this talk last week from Solar scientist Joan Burkepile of the High Altitude Observatory discusses what causes Radiation storms from Coronal Mass Ejections. She makes it interesting from a physics point of view. And as we understand the sun better, we also learn more about how the rest of the universe behaves.
Thanks for sharing this, Tom!
Video: Guide to using SDR-Console V3 remotely
Many thanks to Jon Hudson at SDRplay who produced the following excellent instructional video about setting up SDR-Console V3 for remote use. Jon writes:
For SDR Console users, this video guide shows you how to access other people’s SDRs and how to add your own.
If you are wanting to add your own SDR for remote use, there are a couple of things to be careful with:
Be careful when plugging multiple SDRs into a single USB2 socket to make sure there’s enough power – for multiple SDRs, you may need a powered hub ( like this: http://amzn.to/2oa84kM) [or this in North America].
Once you are up and running – please go to http://www.sdrspace.com/Version-3 and view your listing – if there is a yellow triangle, then you are not accessible outside your own firewall – attention is needed! Just because you can access it on your own LAN doesn’t mean it’s accessible via the internet!!! This is the most common area to have problems – double check your router’s port forwarding settings are correct (default port 50101 TCP).
Video: Comparing the SDRplay RSP1A and Airspy HF+ on HF & MW
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Ivan Cholakov, who shares the following video where he compares the SDRplay RSP1A and the AirSpy HF+ software defined radios on shortwave and mediumwave:
TX Factor Episode 20
(Source TX Factor)
Welcome to our 20th episode! In this revamped show we conclude our look at innovative amateur radio products from Hamfest 2017, and Bob goes back to basics with an overview of setting up an inexpensive SDR dongle.
We have two great prizes to give away in our free-to-enter draw. An RSP1A SDR receiver from SDRplay and a copy of the best-selling book ‘SDR’ from the RSGB. Plus we look back at the past four years of topics covered by the TX Factor team. We hope you enjoy it!
http://www.txfactor.co.uk
Click here to view Episode 20 on TX Factor’s website, or click here to watch on YouTube.
Thanks for yet another excellent and informative episode, TX Factor!
Comparing the XHDATA D-808, Digitech AR-1780 and Tecun PL-660 on shortwave
On Friday, I managed to set aside an hour to finally do a video comparison of the Digitech AR-1780 and the new XHDATA D-808.
I placed a table in my driveway, far away from any source of RFI, and set up the radios in identical configurations: same orientation, antennas fully-extended, same AM bandwidth (4.0 kHz), same audio levels, etc. For good measure, I also included the venerable Tecsun PL-660 in the mix.
This was still daytime listening, so all of the stations were from 31 meters and up.
Apologies in advance: somehow the cord from my monitoring headphones is in the shot on some of these videos! I’m still getting used to the new Zoom Q2n video camera:
WRMI 9,455 kHz
Click here to view on YouTube.
WWV 15 MHz
Click here to view on YouTube.
Deutsche Welle 15,200 kHz
Click here to view on YouTube.
Afia Darfur 9,825 kHz
Click here to view on YouTube.
I should add that QSB was slow and deep on Friday. Twice I had to re-shoot videos because the station simply faded into oblivion.
I plan to do a few more comparisons with the XHDATA D-808 and Digitech AR-1780 soon as I’m very curious how SSB reception may differ.
Please comment with your observations. Which radio did you prefer? I’ll hold my comments for now.